Hi everyone, I am new to this site and never in a million years thought I would be looking for information on homeschooling.

I have 4 great kids-G10, G8, B4 and B2--we are so blessed with a neat school system in our town, so why are my kiddos so unhappy?

My 10 year old--I know you hear this all the time--is really smart, tests on a high school reading and math level. She LOVES school, well she used to. She is in the 4th grade and everything has changed this year. She got an extremely difficult teacher who I have tried to work with and just can't.

My daughter has become this angry person that I hardly even know. Friends are telling me it is hormones but when she is home for vacations and for weekends she turns back into a sweet girl who has tons of fun. I KNOW it is school.

My 8 year old has been miserable from the first day of pre-k. She is in 2nd grade now and tells me everyday that she wants to be home schooled. SHE WANTS TO! I am shocked! Socially she has just not had the same luck my older daughter has and she is extremely shy and won't ask for help from her teacher. She told me "mom, most of the time I just don't know what is going on at school." I have talked to her teachers who say she is doing "fine". Every year they tell me "She is fine." I don't know if they even pay attention to her since she is so quiet.

I want to cry. I am terrified to take this step. I am scared I am not smart enough to teach my children. I am scared they will not have any friends and will not get into college. I am scared even for myself, that it will be so overwhelming and my kids will drive me crazy .

I am looking for support while I try and figure out if this is the right step from my family. Thanks

Hi there! I can relate to your post. My kids (B3.5, G2) are young and I'm starting to homeschool next year but I have similar fears to yours. As a certified teacher I have watched many kids go through what yours are going through. You are doing the right thing. If your kids are unhappy and are supportive of being homeschooled than I feel that it is the right thing to do. Their happiness comes first. Kids cannot learn when they are unhappy and are focused in class on everything other than what they are learning. Don't worry about the "teaching" part of homeschooling. Take it one day at a time. Take your kids out and give them some down time (without schooling) to relax and find themselves while you get your plans organized. Decide what you want to cover for the rest of the year and break in down into manageable chunks...provided that you're not going the unschooling route. If you are, that will work too! This is a great site and there are lots of people here that can help and support you. I've found that there are a lot more people homeschooling than I had ever imagined. This being the case, there are often a lot of opportunities for social activities for both you and your kids. Good luck and ask if you need support. Alison

I want to say I understand all to well the frustrations you are going through. I had the same thoughts a year ago when I was at my wits end with my oldest daughter and her school. She went pre-k through half of 2nd grade. Pre-k and k were wonderful experiences for her and for me. I was so involved and was even offered a job at the pre-k because I was there so much. I filled in for teachers and it was wondeful. Then in 1st grade she got a teacher who made it very evident she did not want my time at all and my daughter started to go down hill. I hoped for a better teacher the next year. 2nd grade came and started off well but the teacher again did not want my involvement and then my daughter started to change. She was picked on to the point of starting to chew her fingers until they bled!! I got smile stamps on her daily progress chart, yet would go to meeting after meeting with her teacher to find that she was not finishing her work and staying in nearly every recess. (So why was she getting smile stamps and making A's?) I would question her fingers and pencils being chewed raw and the teacher would insinuate that it was stemming from something happening at home (which was NOT the case at all). My daughter got to were she hated to read and no longer was even intrested in my reading aloud (which she had always loved). I finally asked my daughter one day what the teacher said when the other kids called her names. She said, "She says she will talk to you about it". Why on earth would she talk to me and not the parents of the kids doing the name calling? So I (hypothetically) asked her what would happen if she was to call another kid a name. She looks at me and says, "But mama, I don't call people names." She was right. She was raised to be sweet and respectful. Why should I have to change her or harden her to "fit in" or "deal with it" at 7yo? Besides, I could no longer keep telling her "next year will be better". It just was not fair.

So I made the decision to pull both my children (my other daughter is 6yo). I just want to say that when I first started homeschooling I was terrified. My fear of failing at it drove me to read everything I could get my hands on about homeschooling and education philosophies. I realize now that those fears are what drive me to do everything I can possibly do to ensure they thrive. What started out as me doing something I felt I had no choice but to do has now (in one year) turned into something I WANT to do. I love it! They love it!!

Within a few months of taking my daughter to the library every other week and allowing her to choose what she wanted to read and not caring if the color of dot matched for her level (like they did in school) her love of reading returned. I have my daughter back. No more bleeding fingers, no more chewed up pencils. Of course I still have worries and sometimes the doubts creep in of "are we doing enough" or "are we doing to much". I just have to remind myself of where we started and how far we have already come in such a short time.

Good luck to you. Just know that your fears and worries are normal and if you do decide to homeschool just know that they will still be there. Just don't let them control you....just let them give you the drive to keep going.

As a former teacher, let me assure you that you will be OK teaching your own children. Think about it--- you were teaching them all that time before you ever sent them anywhere! They learned to walk, eat solid food, go to the bathroom, get dressed, etc. all without benefit of a public school. If none of those events were particularly traumatizing for y'all, then you should be fine.

You might take a look at this site: http://www.homeschoolbookfair.org/ Go to the 'exhibitors' list and you'll see links to most of the major Christian homeschool curricula out there. Many of these sites have sample pages available online to view.

You'll find your own groove as you get into the swing of it. Teachers often say that the first year of teaching is the hardest-- and it is! You have to get yourself organized and figure out how you want to do things. Teaching is hands-on, so that means you have to do stuff by trial and error. When you find something isn't working, toss it and move on to the next thing.

Most importantly, allow yourselves time to find your niche--- you're not working on anyone else's timetable other than your own!_________________Redhead
"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil." C.S. Lewis

My 10 yr old daughter did a complete 180 degrees too when she started the fourth grade this year. She was making straight A's was very open with doing her homework with me then when she started the fourth grade this year she became a whole nother person. Telling me she had no homework everyday and arguing over little things with me. My 7 year old also asked to be homeschooled because she just wasn't feeling like she belonged. She was having a difficult time with her school work and her teacher was telling me that Cheyanne was fine. Her report card said otherwise.

Now that I have brought them home and mind you this has been since Jan. 8th of this year, things have already gotten better. We sit down together and do work. My oldest helps her younger sister with her work. When my children have difficulty with Math my husband thinks of fun things to do with them to explain the problems they have with their math.

I also have a 4 yr old son that is having a ball having his sisters home to keep him company. I am too scared that I will not give them everything they need to become well rounded adults. My brother thinks that I will be taking their social network away. My girls are in scouts and they go church on occasion with friends of mine. I am also going to find them some activities during the day. They also have become pen pals to some of the other children being hs and talked about here in this group (Which has become a wonderful resource )